NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Oct. 17, 2012--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today said its ratings on U.S. Bancorp (USB; A+/Stable/A-1) are not affected by the company's strong third-quarter earnings, which were within our expectations given the current operating conditions. The company posted pretax earnings of $2.03 billion, up from $1.94 billion the previous quarter and $1.74 billion the prior year. We expect earnings to continue to rise in the fourth quarter, largely because of loan growth, continued strong mortgage banking revenue, and modest reserve releases. In the third quarter, revenue increased 2.2% from the previous quarter and 8.0% year over year because of an increase in average earning assets and fee-based income, particularly mortgage banking. Positively, the net interest
